


Five Times Clint Barton Spoke with Steve Rogers about Growing Old and the One Time He Didn't.

by spectralarchers



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Don't copy to another site, Family, Found Family, Gen, Old!Clint Barton, Old!Steve Rogers, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Endgame, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 19:14:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18723244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spectralarchers/pseuds/spectralarchers
Summary: When Steve Rogers reappeared from the past as an old man, there was a lot of catching up to do. Clint Barton made sure nobody got left behind.





	Five Times Clint Barton Spoke with Steve Rogers about Growing Old and the One Time He Didn't.

**Author's Note:**

> I have been thinking about this little story ever since I saw Endgame and saw the last scene. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did writing it!

******I. A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself (Leo F. Buscaglia)**

 

“Hey, Clint, there's something you need to see.”

Both Laura and Clint turn around from the window, overlooking the lake. Wondering, Clint lets go of Laura's hand, and frowns.

“Something went wrong with Steve?”

Bruce's lips tighten, and when he doesn't give an exact reply, Clint brings Laura's hand to his mouth, whispering that he'll be right back, and follows Bruce outside.

They pass the living room, where Pepper is sitting with both Morgan and Nathaniel beside her, reading out loud to them both. Happy is talking with Rhodey, while Nick is sitting at one of the oak tables, an open book in front of him, a focused look on his face.

Bruce only speaks once they're on their own. “Steve did what he was supposed to, but-”

Bruce stops in his tracks, when Clint realizes who's sitting on the lakeshore bench by the end of the trail. Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson are standing close to the miniaturized quantum platform, and the reflection of the sun bouncing off a vibranium shield, in Sam's hands, catches Clint's eye before he can realize what's going on.

The two men stop talking, and with a nod, Bucky nods his head in the direction of the old man sitting on the bench, and Clint slowly begins walking that way, thoughts in his head racing at the speed of light. There's flowers blossoming on the forest floor around them, and the scent of nature envelops him, but he can't help but focus on what's in front of him.

When he reaches the bench, and realizes that it's Steve sitting there, his heart almost stops.

Steve looks peaceful. He looks about 70 years older than when he saw him changing into his suit a couple of minutes ago, but there's a glow in his eyes that tells Clint, before Steve can say anything, that whatever happened, went more than well. And, for the first time since Tony's funeral, Clint weels his heart tighten, the same way it had when he'd realized that Natasha was gone forever.

“Did you make that dance?”

Steve's face turns at his words, and Clint almost chuckles when their eyes meet. There's no need to reply, because he knows. There's a ring on Steve's finger, and the look on his face says it all. Tapping the bench beside him, Steve lets out a sigh.

“Yes I did.”

Clint doesn't expect more than that for now, and simply looks out across the lake in front of them. There's birds in the trees above them, and he can hear the faint echoes of conversations at the house and the voices of Barnes, Wilson and Banner discussing by the quantum machine, but for now, he focuses on Steve.

“How was it?” he finally asks, and Steve puts his hand on Clint's thigh, a wide smile across his face.

“Every bit as good as you said it would,” he says, followed by a wink. Clint's lower lip betrays his emotions, and he blinks a few times as the emotions well up in his chest. It had been one of his ideas – just something he'd said half as a joke, half seriously, when he'd helped Steve suit up, only a couple of hours ago.

“Looks like you both copied my lifestyle,” he says, as a way to break the tears filling his eyes, and Steve smiles even wider at that. Tony had done what he said he'd do after they had defeated Thanos – taken a page out of Barton's book and built Pepper a farm.

“I did, but you had the right idea all along,” is all Steve replies to that, as he begins to play with the ring on his hand and smiles to himself at the thought of her. They sit there quietly for a couple more seconds, before Steve speaks again.

“Peggy wanted to say thank you, Barton. For this,” he motions to the ring on his hand with a nod of his head, “and for this,” Steve continues, motioning around them, to the trees, the sounds, the life happening around them. A laughter echoes from the house, and Clint turns slightly to look over his shoulder, and sees Nathaniel chasing Morgan across the kitchen garden. Steve follows his look, and chuckles again.

“You know, when you first brought us to your home,” Steve begins, and Clint blinks a tear away, hoping that it won't spill onto his cheek, “I never thought that I would get home. That I would find my place again.” Steve smiles to himself, the same way all happy elderly men smile, the way they know that they have lived a happy life, and Clint feels both pride and sadness in him. “But I did, and it was the best life I could have had.”

“Did you change things around a little bit?” Clint asks, and Steve looks at him, as if he wants to scold him, with a glint of humor in his eyes.

“Wouldn't it break the rules of time-travel if I told you that?”

Clint shrugs. “I don't know, I was wrong about them the first time around,” he says, ending with a chuckle, as a single tear finally makes its way down his cheek. He wipes it away with the back of his hand, and realizes that Steve has produced a fabric tissue from his pocket and is handing it to him. Smiling, Clint accepts it.

“My SHIELD looks a little bit different than yours,” Steve finally admits, and motions backwards, smiling. “But, I had to come back to this time now. I had some loose ends to tidy up.”

Wiping his face with the tissue, Clint finally folds it, out of habit, before balling it up in his fist. “So you're staying here?”

Nodding, Steve takes a deep breath and focuses his gaze on the horizon. “I think I would like that, yes.”

Clint wants to say something more than that, but he ends up sitting on the bench next to Steve for the following minutes in silence. He wants to say that he is so proud of Steve, for having gone back and finding his place again. For living out the life he deserved. For being free and happy again. It's only when he feels a hand on his shoulder, that Clint looks up and realizes Laura has joined them by the shore. She's smiling too, but her eyes are red, and Clint knows she's been crying too.

“Dinner's ready,” she says, as Steve turns to her and smiles at her as well, “for both of you.” Clint notices that Laura's eyes go to Steve's ring, and another set of tears appear in her eyes, and he suddenly feels so very much how he loves her, and how he understands that Steve went back to his true love.

“Thank you, ma'am,” Steve nods, as Clint gets up from the bench, and hesitates giving Steve a hand.

Steve beats him by fidgeting with something on the side of the bench, and picking up a cane from the ground. “I can still walk all the way up to that house on my own,” he says, and both Clint and Laura laugh at that, as they follow his pace back up to Tony's house.

 

* * *

 

**II. Age appears to be best in four things: old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read. (Francis Bacon)**

 

It's been a couple of years already.

Steve and Clint are sitting out on the porch that Clint has renovated recently. He's been staying more and more at the farm, his back hurting from past missions and his shoulder injury causing him to take a step back from the field.

Both of them have a glass of limonade in their hands. Laura had made it with Lila's help a couple of days before, and invited Steve to taste it.

All of them know that it's an excuse to talk a little bit about the past. Fury's handling the new world quite well, with the help of Banner and Shuri. Some ressources problems had appeared as they had reversed Thanos' decimation, but Wakanda's brightest mind and the leading scientists had managed to figure out a way to improve distribution of food ressources across the planet, until Earth could readjust to having 7 billion people on it, rather than half of that.

“How is Wanda doing?” Steve asks, as Clint pushed himself up to turn on one of the lamps on the porch. It'll keep the moths away from them, and hopefully, the scented oil will keep the mosquitoes away from both him and Steve.

Clint takes the glass up to his lips, and takes a sip before answering. “She's doing good, she's- she's stronger now than ever. Carol's helping her figure out just exactly how strong,” he says, chuckling to himself. “Carol's the only one Wanda can spar with that's not going to get injured by her powers.”

“I would imagine so,” Steve says, his hands resting on his thighs.

Muffled voices are coming from inside the farm – Cooper's working on his University application, while Lila is discussing her presentation for school with Laura. Nathaniel is watching television, even though it's late, and even though it's a school night. But it's alright, because Steve is visiting, and when Steve visits, it's okay to stay up a little bit longer.

Clint's made it a habit to invite Steve out west as often as he can. Life in New York is hectic, especially with the whole rebuilding human kind process, and even though Steve has super-soldier serum in his veins, the nice quiet of the flyover states is still one of the best ways to rest.

And, Clint's homestead is one of the only places where Steve can take an afternoon nap and not get woken up by sirens around him. It reminds him of the first months back in the 1940s, after the war. He hasn't talked to too many people about how things went, when he returned to the past to live out his life. Clint is one of those people, though. So Clint knows.

“And Sam?” Steve asks, after a couple of seconds of both of them watching a moth trying to get into the gas lamp, failing and flying off into the darkening sky, across the wide pastures that line Clint's farmhouse.

“He's doing good. Him and Bucky are quite the team,” Clint says, humor in his voice, “But they're doing a great job. Strange, T'Challa and everybody – Sam's a great leader, Steve. He's been doing great things these last couple of months, but you know all about that, don't you?”

It's a jest at the number of newspapers Steve has been reading through since he got here. Laura never throws them out – she knows that Steve likes to go through them, as he sits in one of the old chairs Clint inherited from his parents, when the kids are at school and she's working from home, while Clint is out working with the cattle, the horses or one the crops.

The first time Clint had come in for the afternoon and seen Steve sitting where Harold used to sit, reading a newspaper, he'd had to walk out again immediately. Laura had followed him outside and asked him what was wrong, but Clint had been smiling through the tears. He'd told her, that he had always hoped someone could be a grandfather for the kids, and seeing Steve sitting there had hit him in the gut.

Nathaniel had started to call Steve grandpa too, that day. It had been an accident – from the beginning, Nathaniel had been confused as to why Steve had gone from being young and strong enough to carry him around his shoulders to old and grey-haired, and it had simply slipped out. Both Clint and Laura had stopped in their tracks, at dinner, when Nate had called Steve “Grandpa”, but the lights in Steve's eyes had made it worth it.

After a couple of tries, even Lila and Cooper had accepted the change in title, and Steve had become Grandpa Steve rather than Uncle Steve.

Bringing his lemonade glass to his mouth, Steve takes a sip as well, a smile spreading onto his face.

“Laura's using Peggy's recipe,” he says, and Clint nods.

“You gave it to us, she tried it, and she said she was never going to make it any different way than that. That's your legacy in our time-line, Steve. The best lemonade in the whole world.”

Both of them chuckle, before Clint clears his throat. “No, but seriously. There's only so many words to say how much what you and- what you all did for us means.”

Steve knows that the others are Tony, Natasha, and all the other ones they've lost along the way. Clint more so than others – Steve remembers Laura telling him about how Clint couldn't keep it together the first couple of hours after they'd returned from the Soul World. Telling her how much it hurt to not have Natasha around anymore. For how could he ever carry Nathaniel around, when both his namesakes had given their lives to save his?

“That is the legacy of the Avengers, Clint. You are a part of that team,” Steve says, nodding to himself, as if he knows something Clint doesn't. “You always were. You're the reason why there's a new generation of Avengers out there, fighting the good fight on behalf of those who can't.” He pauses for a second, talking the time to regroup his thoughts.

“Bruce is a scientist, he would never have been able to tutor them all into becoming the people they are today. Rhodes helped you do that, yes, as did Bucky, but, in the end, it was your effort, and Fury's, who built the New Avengers up from the ground. Your legacy is still being built as we speak, and many years will pass before it is done.”

Clint feels his hands shake, and takes a moment to focus, deep breaths. It had been a fight – coming back from Ronin, from killing so many people in those 5 years that he'd lost? To be able to lead a team, or at least, help them train?

He remembers sitting at the same table Steve had sat at, the day Ross had presented him with the Accords, going over the idea of a new team. He'd been one of the few men at the table that day, and he'd wished Natasha had been there to see it – for so many years, she had been the only one, until Wanda had joined the team, and then? Pepper, Shuri, Brunnhilde, Okoye, Hope, Helen, Jane, Betty- they'd all joined to help rebuild the world a better way than it had been before.

“I hope you're right, Steve,” Clint says, as he lifts his glass. Steve taps it with his own and they both know that it was a toast for those they lost along the way.

 

* * *

 

 

**III. Old friends die on you, and they're irreplaceable. You become dependent. (Lionel Blue)**

 

“You never told me how it happened.”

It's a warm Spring day, and there's flowers blooming around Natasha's headstone. Clint hadn't been able to get her body back from Vormir, but they'd erected a memorial for her both at the Avengers Compound when it had been rebuilt, and they'd found a spot not too far from where Clint's parents were laid to rest.

Everyone had said that Natasha's family had always been SHIELD, and when Laura had suggested they take her to rest with Clint's family, everyone had agreed. Through tears, mostly, but it had been decided that she would come to rest where Clint and Laura would too, once their time came.

“You know how she was,” Clint says. He's wearing a flannel shirt, but he put on a nice pair of pants as him and Steve had driven down to the florist in Waverly to find a bouquet to set on Natasha's grave stone.

“The only reason why she-” he sighs, holding back the struggle in his voice, “the only reason why we got the soulstone is because she was better than I was. In every way.”

“She was better than me too,” Steve says, quietly. The air tastes of the new year, Spring scents everywhere, as life is crawling out from under thick layers of snow. “And there wasn't anything either of us could have done to stop her from doing what she did.”

“I tried, man- I tried. I jumped off that edge, and I had made peace with the fact that when Laura and- that when they came back, Nat would have been the one to tell them what I did. Because I stayed in house arrest, when I should have come to fight in Wakanda- because I told everyone, including you, that I was done with this life. But then- she used that damned grappling hook on me and caught me as I was falling. There was nothing I could do,” Clint says, crossing his arms, to stay warm, but also to keep himself from crying.

He stills remembers the look on her face, as she'd told him that it was alright. That it was okay. He could have- he should have been able to get her up again, but she'd done exactly what she needed to do to get her will.

She was and still is the only person to beat Clint in hand-to-hand combat. Except Wanda, but Wanda used her powers when he would get the upper hand – as she should.

“You know, in my time-line,” Steve starts, and Clint turns his head to look at Steve, who's looking at the name engraved on the marble headstone, “you were such an ass as a kid. SHIELD picked you up,” Steve looks at him, and Clint knows that Steve actually means he picked him up, “right after you were discharged from the army. They sent you off after the Black Widow, and you came back with stab wounds to your stomach, but clutching Natasha so hard, we thought you'd never let her go.”

Clint chuckles. “Yeah, that's almost what happened this time around, minus the stab wound.”

Steve nods.

“You and her were living together, when I came back to this time,” Steve continues. “You were together. Matching rings and all, except for when you took them off for a mission.”

The last words catch Clint off guard, and he suddenly feels that he can't stop the tears from streaming down his face. He loved Natasha, and he knows that if he hadn't had Laura and the kids, he probably would have gone that way with Nat too. But she'd gotten a life of her own, with Bruce, and she'd been the best damned partner he ever could have imagined.

To think that in Steve's other life, him and her had been together?

It shouldn't bring him as much joy – and sadness – as it did, but he can't help but smile through the tears staining his face. Steve chuckles.

“You had a dog, and she had a cat, and you guys were the most annoying colleagues I could ever dream of, but you did so good, Clint. Both her and you.”

“Isn't this technically cheating with time?” Clint asks, to lighten the mood. “I'm pretty sure Strange said not to share any details from your time-line with any of us, as it would impact how things worked out in this one.”

Steve laughs, and Clint joins him, before it quietens down. “She loved you, to the very end. You did the best you could, under the circumstances, and there is no reason for you to blame yourself. I know you've been thinking about how things could have been different. But, in every universe, in every time-line, both of you always found yourselves again. In this one,” Steve says as he motions around them, “you have Laura, and you have bright, bright kids to carry on your legacy, and although you may have lost Natasha, she still lives on.”

Nodding to himself, Clint looks down at the name of the stone. Natalia Alianovna Romanova, it read. He puts his hands in his pockets, and starts walking down the path, Steve following him quietly, slowly, as he makes his way down to the places where his mother and father lie.

“Her father's name was Ivan,” Clint says, as he watches the stone in front of him with the name Harold Barton on it. “The Red guy who greeted us on Vormir, he told her she was the daughter of Ivan. He knew my mother's name was Edith too,” he says, motioning to his mother's gravestone in front of them.

“I wish I knew if she has any family in this world. If there's an Ivan out there, who is wondering where his daughter went,” Clint continues.

“Who knows,” Steve says, as the wind picks up quietly, gently. “Maybe there's someone in Russia who is mourning an Avenger without knowing who she was, but the world will never forget her.”

They stand there for a couple of minutes, before walking back up the path, back to the car. Clint opens the passenger door for Steve and helps him get into the car, before he climbs in behind the steering wheel. He looks out the window one last time before turning the engine on, and backing out of the parking lot.

One day, he'd come here and be put to rest next to Natasha, with Laura by his side, and they'd meet again. He'd tell her that Nathaniel is growing into a bright young man, that Cooper married a lovely girl and that Lila's going into politics, because her aunt taught her to fight for her rights.

 

* * *

 

 

**IV. Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family (Anthony Brandt)**

 

“You know, I've forgotten what it feels like to carry such a little human,” Steve says to Clint, quietly enough that Cooper and his wife, Kate, didn't hear them.

It's Francis' nameday – Clint's first grandson. Although Steve is nearing the 100, he's still coming to every single event that Clint invites him too, and when Cooper had asked him if he'd be willing to attend Francis' baptism, he'd said yes immediately.

They're sitting at the table of honor in the rental tent Clint and Laura have set up in their garden. Pepper offered to host the ceremony at the compound, but Clint had declined, telling her that him and Laura had promised Cooper they'd host the party here.

And that they did.

Lying in Clint's arms, little Francis is sleeping soundly, and without a second's hesitation as to whether or not Steve would drop him, Clint shoves his grandson into Steve's arms. “Here, you can try with him,” he says, and before Steve can protest, Francis' weight is all in Steve's arms, and the little boy's eyes open up to look at the familiar face looking down at him.

“He's so small,” Steve says, barely a whisper, and Clint chuckles.

“He's small, but he can cry pretty loud when he wants to,” Clint answers, and nudges Laura's ribcage with his elbow, to motion for her to watch Steve holding the baby in his arms. She in turn nudges Cooper, who bends forward to get a look at the scene unfolding in front of them.

“You'll get a great grandkid, Clint,” Steve says, as he looks up, and everyone looks away.

One of the few things that Clint still hasn't figured out is whether or not Steve got kids during his life – he's remained quiet about it every time he's asked, but the way that he's carrying Francis – supporting his head with his fingers, holding him tightly and rocking him slightly with his entire upper body seems to indicate that he's got some experience with small children.

If not his own, then someone else's.

“You know that this makes you a great-grandfather, right?” Clint says, his voice slightly emotional, and Steve looks up, frowning, but with that same knowing smile he always has.

“I'm not sure that I-”

“Yeah, you are,” Cooper interrupts, as he leans forward on the table again, interrupting the conversation. The rest of the guests, Kate inclusive, interrupt their own conversations to listen on to the exchange that's happening in the tent.

“We've been calling you grandpa for too many years now, you can't escape it, Francis is going to be taught that his great-grandfather was Captain America himself.”

A low rumble of chuckles roll through the guests, and Steve looks down at the face of the boy again, and smiles. “Well, if he wants his great-grandfather to be Captain America, I guess there's nothing I can say that will change that.”

Clint sees Barnes get up from the table at the back and walk up to theirs, putting his hand on Steve's shoulder. The two men shared a look, and Steve gently lets Francis go into Bucky's arms, and Bucky walks away with Clint's grandson, bringing him down to the table where Barney, Wanda and Carol are sitting with them.

“He is going to have the best role models one could hope for,” Steve says, turning his head towards Cooper, who is still smiling at him.

“We got you to thank for that, Grandpa,” Cooper says, and Nathaniel chuckles, leaning back to look up across the table length.

“I called dibs on naming my kid Steve, you know right, grandpa?” Nate says, and Clint almost spits out the bit of lemonade he's been sipping, and Laura laughs, hitting his back to help him get it out of his lungs again.

“You what?” Clint asks, as Steve laughs, and Kate walks up, Francis' wails echoing through the tent.

“Well, I mean, you and mom named us all after other people, so I mean, we gotta name our kids after some people too, right? And there was only six of you, and you already called me after Natasha, so technically that makes five, and we can't have two Steve Bartons running around can we? So we figured out who was going to call who what,” Nathaniel explains, and Clint shakes his head.

Pushing his chair slightly out, Steve looks over at Nathaniel. “And what if you get a girl?”

Nathaniel shrugs. “I mean, we could still call her Sarah, right?”

For a split second, Clint notices Steve taking the time to accept what Nathaniel just said, but then he smiles, and Clint lets out a relieved breath.

“That would be a good alternate, indeed,” he says, pushing his chair back in, and picking up his glass of water again.

“Sorry about that, I told him not to tell you that-”

“It's quite alright,” Steve says, “It means that our legacy won't be forgotten anytime soon.”

Kate comes back with Francis in her arms, and pulls out a chair next to Steve and looks at him. She's been talking a lot with him during her pregnancy, about Peggy Carter and about his life in the past.

Steve puts his hand on her knee, as she bounces Francis slightly to keep him from crying again, and they exchange a gaze. Clint feels Laura's hand on his thigh too, and he bends towards her, their heads touching, as he listens to the world around him.

There's life in this tent, and all the people important to him are here. He sometimes wishes that Natasha was here too, but he knows that her and Tony are looking at the scene from somewhere, and that they'd laugh at the way his family is so intricately like him.

 

* * *

 

 

**V. You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. (E. B. White)**

 

Clint remembers the way Peggy was lying in a bed much like this one, in her last couple of months on this Earth.

For some reason, he always thought that Steve would remain that strong man, throughout time, regardless of his age. He would always walk upright, with the measure of a soldier, whenever they went anywhere, but the last couple of months, Steve's health had been deteriorating, and a bout of pneumonia some weeks ago had forced him into a bed.

He hasn't been out for a walk since then, and although Clint has come to visit more times than he probably should have in order to take him outside in a rolling chair, he knows that it's only a matter of time before Steve says goodbye and goes to join those who have already left.

“Look at you,” Steve says, as Clint sits down in the chair next to the hospital bed, glasses on his nose, hearing aids in his ears and a smile on his face.

“You look like a grandfather too now,” Steve continues, and Clint chuckles.

“Well, we don't all have super-soldier serum in our veins, so some of us have to take the long road to get there,” he replies, and Steve smiles.

“Doctors say that you're doing better this week. Wanda came to say hi yesterday, and Wilson and Barnes were here this morning?” Clint asks, and Steve nods.

He rolls his eyes, actually. “Yes, both of them were here, asking about formalities with SHIELD. I told them that I was not a part of that anymore, that I was-”

“'Retired like Barton', I know. You always tell them that,” Clint interrupts and they both laugh.

Clint's getting old too – the hairs on his head are getting greyish, and it's taking him longer and longer to get up the stairs to the bedroom at the farm. Laura had jokingly suggested that they get some of those electric chairs installed, that Pepper would probably sponsor it herself, but Clint had refused. As long as he could get up and down on his own, he'd do just that, thank you very much.

“I think,” Clint starts, “the worst part is that all my joints are hurting,” he complains, before pursing his lips. “I had to go down to the hunting store and ask them to order some risers that weren't as tight as the ones I used to shoot with, can you imagine that? I could barely pull back the string,” he says, finishing, shaking his head.

“The Amazing Hawkeye can't even pull the string of his bow anymore, what good is he?” he says, smiling through the humor and Steve nods.

“The Amazing Hawkeye has done enough for the world, I would think.”

Clint nods as well. “Yes, he has.”

They both pause, as Steve takes a second to catch his breath – his lung capacity had fallen after the pneumonia, and although he got medicine to help him restore it, he would get short breathed easier than usual now. Clint had spoken with some of the doctors, and they had told him that even Captain America was allowed to become an old man, and that even Captain America wasn't immortal.

The only ones who could get close to that were the Asgardians.

“Thor says hi, by the way,” Clint finally adds, after they've both sat quietly for a couple of minutes. “He's having fun with the Guardians, Carol's been helping them out on Xandar, trying to rebuild that planet. He says that the halls of Valhalla are waiting for one of the greatest warriors this Earth has ever seen and that he looks forward to seeing you again,” Clint says, a smile spreading wide on his face. “But he also said that if you'd like to go somewhere else than Valhalla, then that's good with him too, he'll see you there as well.”

“Wherever Nat and Tony are, I don't care whether that's one place or the other, to be honest,” Steve replies, before he turns and picks up one of the frames on the little table next to his bed. It's an old newspaper cutout from the time they'd saved New York from the Chitauri invasion, and he smiles at it.

“We were so young then,” he says, and Clint laughs.

“I was older than you were then, technically. I mean, you slept in the ice for 70 years, sure, but you still had the body of a thirty something – I was already in my forties at the time. And then you went ahead and cheated and went back in time to catch up with me, low blow, Steve, low blow.”

They both laugh at the joke, and Clint helps Steve put the picture back on the table.

“Laura said you talked about how you wanted the nation to celebrate you,” Clint says then, and Steve nods.

“I don't want anything too outrageous. But you know how these things go, they'll probably do something big anyway,” Steve says, fidgeting.

“I'll try to see if there's anything I can do to make sure they don't turn it into something it shouldn't be,” Clint adds. “You also said that there was something else you wanted to ask of me, the other day?”

“About that, yes,” Steve says, pushing himself up slightly from the bed. “I wanted to know, if you had one last dogsled trip in you,” he starts, and looks Clint in the eye. “I would like half of my ashes to be scattered where you found the Valkyrie, if that would be alright with you.*” Steve pauses, for a bit, allowing Clint a moment to process what he's just asked of him. “The rest, I want SHIELD to put to rest in the gardens of the new SHIELD Academy, next to Peggy's,” he says, and Clint nods.

“I can make sure of that, Steve. Both parts, of course.”

 

* * *

 

 

**VI. Happiness is meeting an old firend after a long time and feeling that nothing has changed. (Unknown)**

 

“Remember when we would talk about what we would tell Tony and Natasha when we saw them again?” Clint pauses, adjusting his weight on the folding chair he's brought out to the little patch of grass, at the Academy. “I told you to say to Nat that I wasn't too far behind, and that she only had a few more years to wait.”

Clint chuckles.

“It's been a little longer than I thought, turns out even regular people can live well into their eighties and that apparently, you would have been a great-great grandfather, because Francis just got his first kid too. He named her Sarah, because Nate got a boy, and nobody had called anyone that yet.”

He looks up at the sky, it's slightly grey, and there's young recruits running around the compound still, training for the next batch of admissions. They'd all realized where the famous Hawkeye was heading with that folding chair he'd taken from the cafeteria, and allowed him to walk across the lawn on his own. None of them had asked him if he needed any help or if they could tell him how much they admired him.

Banner was still Banner. As it turned out, the Hulk didn't age like the rest of the mortals, and he was still himself, even all these years later. Laura had gone two years before, and Pepper had just celebrated her 90th birthday too. Turns out the Extremis-serum had made her more durable too. They were all getting old, but there was a new generation to take care of the planet after them, and Clint knew that his legacy would soon come to a close, when he would finally meet his friends and his family again.

“I hope that you got to teach Tony that dance you promised you'd teach him, and that Laura's not too impatient either. The president came to the farm, the other day. He wanted to say thank you for everything, but since I was the only one left- well, he wanted to tell someone, I guess. Fury left a bit after you did, and now, it looks like it's going to be my turn soon.”

He pauses again, and smiles.

“Kate's been doing great with my bow, she's working with Wanda and Carol now. Carol's not aging as fast as the rest of us mortals are either, so she's still going strong. We did good, Steve. I can't wait to see you again, my friend.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> * The Valkyrie: It's a little nod to my other fic, "Nothing Burns like the Cold" which is about Clint Barton going to the North Pole to find the Valkyrie.
> 
> Did you catch who Cooper Barton married?  
> And, how did you like this story?
> 
> Please let me know in the comments!  
> And, as always, I am spectralarchers over on tumblr ♥


End file.
